A 7.8 million dollar grant offered through the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation will help an American university work with eight African countries to improve their farming techniques.

Michigan State University, through funding from the Gates Foundation Global Development Program, says the research aims to intensify farming methods that meet the agricultural needs of Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Zambia, Ethiopia and Tanzania.

As food prices climb, African policymakers
are considering short- and long-term ways to make food prices affordable.
The measures range from food subsidies for consumers to incentives for
farmers to increase production. From Washington, William Eagle has the
story.

African governments are under pressure
from consumers - and in some cases protestors - to act now. Some,
like Nigeria, are working to satisfy demand and lower prices by releasing
emergency grain reserves.

Some of the most widespread flooding
in years has swept across Sub-Saharan Africa, from Ghana, Niger, Mali,
and Togo in the west to Ethiopia, Uganda, and Sudan in the east. In
the last 24 hours, the International Red Cross (IFRC) has added Burkina
Faso to its emergency rolls after 33 deaths were reported and more than
75-hundred homes destroyed in torrential rains. In addition, the
UN World Food Program (WFP) is appealing for three-point eight million
dollars to feed 470-thousand victims in Mauritania, where saturated supplies
are putting thousands at risk.